The Role of Leadership, Financing and Academic Promotion toward Research Culture in Malawi’s Higher Education Institutions

The study sought to establish the role of leadership, financing and Academic Promotion toward research culture in Malawi’s Higher Education Institutions. The study used the quantitative approach and particularly the descriptive correlational design whereby items in the questionnaire were in numbers for determining the perception of respondents and relating variables under investigation. The study used purposive convenient sampling method to identify 112 researchers from various countries including Malawi, Kenya, United States and Canada who had taught in Malawian Higher learning institutions to fill the questionnaire. The results of the Cronbach’ alpha was .750 indicating high internal consistency of the instrument and the KMO measure of sampling adequacy was .739 which indicate that the instrument was valid and reliable. The study concluded that promotion into higher academic ranks is a better and significant predictor for research culture. If universities provide research-based promotions up the academic ladder, then the research culture would be realized and enhanced.